Budget 2015: Legislation targets multinationals | The Australian

The federal government has accelerated efforts to tackle tax evasion by multinationals after introducing legislation last night to combat profits being moved offshore.

An unnamed 30 multinational companies with more than $1 billion in revenue from Australia will be hit with penalties of double the tax due and interest from early next year if they are found to be ­artificially structuring their affairs to avoid paying tax in Australia or elsewhere in the world, according to a draft of the legislation.

The measures, announced just days before the budget, follow Australia’s presidency of the G20, which resolved to combat so-called base erosion and profit shifting by companies that has undermined the tax revenue of the world’s biggest economies.The legislation aims to ensure that multinationals cannot use complex, contrived and artificial schemes to escape paying tax.

“Entities will no longer be able to have significant sales activity here but book their revenue overseas so they can pay little or no tax worldwide,’’ according to the draft legislation.

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About Simeon Duncan

Simeon has over a decade of high-level experience in Australian federal politics. He worked in communications and campaign roles as a Senior Advisor providing strategic advice, training and support to three Opposition Leaders.